Sunday, April 15, 2018

The Politicization of the FBI

Over the past year, facts have emerged that suggest there was a plot by high-ranking FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials in the Obama administration, acting under color of law, to exonerate Hillary Clinton of federal crimes and then, if she lost the election, to frame Donald Trump and his campaign for colluding with Russia to steal the presidency. This conduct was not based on mere bias, as has been widely claimed, but rather on deeply felt animus toward Trump and his agenda.

In the course of this plot, FBI Director James Comey, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI Deputy Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, Strzok’s paramour and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, FBI General Counsel James Baker, and DOJ senior official Bruce Ohr—perhaps among others—compromised federal law enforcement to such an extent that the American public is losing trust. A recent CBS News poll finds 48 percent of Americans believe that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia collusion probe is “politically motivated,” a stunning conclusion. And 63 percent of polled voters in a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll believe that the FBI withheld vital information from Congress about the Clinton and Russia collusion investigations.

Is 'politicization' the right word? Can one politicize what is already political by its very nature? (The FBI is part of the government; the government is a political entity; ergo, the FBI is political and essentially so; one cannot politicize, i.e., make political, what cannot exist except as political. Might it not be better to say that Comey, McCabe, and the gang are using the FBI for partisan purposes?

I mean: you wouldn't want to say that when functioning properly and in accordance with the Constitution the government and its branches and bureaus is apolitical, would you?

You are free to dismiss these questions as the ruminations of a pedant.